by Alex Roldan
The country’s economy is normally feeble, unemployment rate is high, there’s a growing number of uneducated population, there’s widespread poverty and burgeoning public debt. The government’s usual explanation for this mess, a point that is also shared by some technocrats, is our galloping population growth. But is it our more than 2% annual growth the real culprit?
This protracted debate remains a ticklish issue that has hounded our country for decades. Depending on what your perspective is, the blame is pinned on either the population growing so fast that our economy cannot pull alongside with the need, or our resources have reached the limit with regards to its carrying capacity.
While we continue to debate, the farther we are from arriving at a solution and the country and our people continue to suffer from its effects.
The RH Bill for example, I find it acceptable for husband and wife to make an informed choice on how many children they plan to have to help slow down the population growth in order to reduce the incidence of poverty while redounding to the health of the whole family. The ultimate goal is to reduce the birth rate as part of the solution to the country’s ills!
The Catholic Church is against it because of philosophical reasons, but they too agree that the family should plan! The resort to the natural method is in consonance with the purpose of the RH Bill, which seeks to control the growth of the population. The debate is on whether to use the natural method or a combination of “natural or unnatural” with the goal being the same—reducing the high rate of population growth. So, why the debate?
Sorry to say this, but they miss the point if the purpose is enhance the economic development of this country. The basic consideration of finding the best solution to our economic misery is constantly missed and has instead taken the route of making it purely a social problem than a political one.
Like in any strategic planning process, high population growth is considered the country’s weakness. More Filipinos join the labor force than the economy can absorb. Competition for jobs becomes so intense that it even forces those who toiled hard to learn higher skills to accept meager salaries. A case of too many for so few jobs. This is the situation. This is the reality of our times.
The accepted wisdom that if there’s too much or too many, let us trim it down won’t work. It simply can’t be done on such issues as runaway population. It is impossible to merely cut population growth and everything will be fine afterwards. The increase or decrease in population is rather the consequence of many factors, but it remins government’s responsibility to utilize all available human resources and turn them into productive citizens.
As has been said, it is basic in any planning process wherein if you see that population is a weakness, and since reducing its number in so short a time is impossible to achieve, there is no logical way out except to convert that weakness into strength! Population is never a threat. It always falls within the quadrant of opportunity, thus this must be the most sensible option.
Therefore, high population growth is not the real issue, but rather of how can we make the people of this country economically productive! Experience has it that developed countries used the strength and number of their people to achieve their present status. China, like Singapore and Taiwan, failed despite their one-child policy.
After realizing the futility of their population reduction programs, governments turned to their people, not against them, but on how to effectively utilize them in strengthening their economies. With good leadership and clear goals, these countries achieved the unimaginable. They are now the economic dynamos of Asia.
But look, population growth in these countries never ceased. The only difference is that, their respective population growth becomes anemic and they foresee another problem, and that is caring for their aging population. The decline continued despite the incentives provided by their governments for couples to produce more children.
Population growth and reduction is a continuum of stages of ups and downs in the graph. The manipulability of the situation is plausible, therefore, it now depends on us particularly the leadership, if we want to stay long on where we are currently in.
I believe that debate should move around this spot.
For comments, e-mail to roldanalex@yahoo.com
